Fun With The Sun - Solar Furnace

Those full page magnifiers are great for solar experiments. Why, because of the Fresnel lens design. I bought a
5 pack from Amazon
As you can see below I made an adjustable frame and burning platform. Anything short of metal either burst into flame or
began to aggressively smolder. So my first experiment was a penny. At first nothing happened and I became bored after a
couple of minutes, then I realized the platform was acting as a heat sink. I used a small piece of bark as an insulator
between the penny and the platform. Of course I used my needle nose pliers since it was really hot. I had to be quick as
well since the bark instantly began to flame and burn.

This is where things became interesting. After about 90 seconds the penny had turned into a pool of zinc with a thin layer
of actual copper on top. Zinc by itself has a melting point of 787.15 °F; the copper softened and became malleable and
crumbly. The Zinc cooled to a hard chunk.

I have not identified the top temperature yet, but 800 °F is nothing to laugh at and it can be dangerous so proper
caution should be applied. Don't look at the burn spot too long, it will mess up your eyes. Use thick sun glasses or
welding mask.

I have some ideas to increase output and I want to see if I can make some sort of steam engine. Some tracking motors
mounted to the lens so that it would track the sun around a central point, which would be steel water enclosure. Heat
it up and use the steam power... Check back often for updates.